TMA Sweden arranged a highly interesting seminar on 28 March in front of an expectant audience. The event featured a panel consisting of Janet Claesson, Kristian Pande Horn and Erlend Lous.
Janet Claesson, currently at Sevenco (previously treasurer at Preem) described the particular difficulties being in the commodities business but also the solutions implemented to overcome these difficulties, including risk mitigation, hedging tactics etc. It was especially interesting to learn from Janet how the sharp decrease in oil prices, a few years ago, was successfully handled by Preem.
The second speaker, Kristian Pande Horn of the Norway based investment bank Arctic Securities, presented his insights from the shipping and off-shore industries, mainly from a financing perspective and in particular involving a number of turnaround cases. A lesson learned from his seminar is that the financing market seems to have “flock“ behavioral tendencies, in the sense that is has been easy in certain sectors to get financing, as these enjoy popularity for the moment (which vary with time), while in other sectors it is much harder to be financed.
Last but not least, the shipping and aviation specialist Erlend Lous of the Norweigan Law Firm Simonsen Vogt Wiig, presented an interesting overview of the particular cross-border legal issues within the shipping industry. A fascinating conclusion from the presentation was how easy it may be for a debtor to “forum shop” and to choose a jurisdiction that the debtor deems beneficiary, regardless of the opinion of the secured creditors. Erlend also gave examples of the risk and opportunities trying to enforce pledged ships in different jurisdictions.
All in all the evening was quite educational and pleasant. After the seminar, the attendees mingled with snacks and drinks with compliments to the generous host of the evening, Wistrand.